The guard complement that had joined the prime minister and his family in the room spun around and trained their machine guns on the door. Forming two rows, the front one kneeling, they aimed ten powerful assault rifles at the fifteen-inch-thick steel portal while their captain called to his counterpart outside the door for an update.

“The guards at the gates report all insurgents dead, sir, but some must have made it into the compound. Two guards have just been thrown from the roof. We are sending a team to … wait, you there, one of the fallen guards appears to have survived … go help that man, fetch a medic … wait, he is getting up … dear Allah, what is happe …” gunshots could be heard through the radio, then the guard on the other end shouted: “Die, You Bastard, Why Won’t You Die?!” then the radio went dead, a few more shots still just audible through the thick walls.

The firing stopped.

“Captain!” shouted the prime minister. “What is happening out there? What is happening?” the children were crying now, huddling by their mother, but their father was focused on the door.

“Prime Minister, the door is over a foot thick and can only be opened from the inside.” The captain was clearly deeply shaken, but he had a procedure. “We will wait until the garrison arrives from the barracks. They have a code word to confirm they have control of the compound, only when I hear it will I open the door. They cannot get through this door, sir.” The captain’s voice waivered, but he was firm, his training centering him and holding him steady.

Shahim could, probably, have wrenched the door free, but the massive structure’s formidable tensile strength might have strained even his phenomenal muscles. Even if he could, though, it would have left even more evidence that this was not the work of insurgents.

No, brute force was not the primary method of the advanced team, despite the massacre he had just wrought on the really quite brave guards. Nonetheless, in preparation for what was to come next, he rolled out the Tactical Contact Weapons Complement from behind his left eye, its menacing needles emerging from the eye socket as stepped up to the door.

Back inside, behind what they thought was an impregnable door, the radio came to life again.

The voice was familiar, an exact duplicate of the captain’s now dead colleague on the outside, it said, “Captain, the insurgents have been suppressed, we have control over the compound and all sectors report secure. Also, the East Gate reports that the rest of the garrison has arrived and is manning the walls. You may open the door, code word ‘alshahad75.’”